When they were little and stayed near the coop I put a sheet of plywood on cynder blocks and they would run under it if anything flew by. But now they roam the entire farm. I always know when a hawk is around as they will all be trying to hide in bushes.

Quote:This is terribly illegal and carries very heavy fines. Want to know why its hard to convince local governments about backyard chicken keeping? This is one of the reasons. This is a PUBLIC forum where our post ARE rad by officials.

Its much easier to exclude predators.

hanging shiny things up that twist and change in the wind and giving your birds cover is the way to go- You don't want to make them completely safe so you have to handle this.

If you remove one hawk another will come and you will (eventually) get caught.

varmint laws state that an animal that is a nuisance can be kill in defense of livestock or garden losses. translation: you can shoot deer in a garden year around. if a hawk takes a chick. it can be shot. just incase i'm wrong about your area. call local animal control about your local laws.

If you really want to protect your birds from Hawks then you need to make a serious choice, free range them and except any losses you will have and there will be many, or get smart and secure them in a real overhead protected preditor proof run. Little shinny twisty things and blow up something or others yard ornaments are just a waste of time, because the hawks are much smarter than the folks who try these silly antics. Please protect them the right way or live with having to replace your chickens frequently, those my friend are the facts. I hope things work out whatever you choose.

Quote:I put up a poultry net and stopped free ranging my birds all the time. This was OK since the yard was devastated. I still lets the birds out once in a while, but infrequently enough that the hawks have lost interest and moved on to other targets.

Quote:Hawks, as well as many other birds are protected by Federal law. That supercedes any local or state laws. The penalties are stiff if you are caught killing, harassing, capturing any bird on the protected list.